Gettysburg's History, Mysteries, and a Few Ghosts with Mark Nesbitt
Author, and ex-park ranger at the Gettysburg National Military Park, gives us a presentation touching base on a variety of mysteries from around the battlefields.
Mark Nesbitt, author of many ghosts of Gettysburg books, did a talk on the battlefields for the last PROMM event of the year. Some of the topics discussed were as follows:
Was Gettysburg Destined to be Killing Grounds? Over the course of his lifetime working for the National Military Park, Mark has seen many arrowheads come from the surrounding areas and spoke about a possible ghost sighting from articles dating back to the late 1800s. Tying it into a soldier story where they saw an American Indian help guide them from being lost, then vanishing in a location that hadn't seen one in hundreds of years, and the mind begins to wonder if the land was destined to be used in an all out battle once more (it is possible that a Native American battle occurred in the same area between two tribes).
Did You Know that Jennie Wade has three houses? There are written accounts that she was more of a "she-rebel" than an actual heroine of the war as the only civilian killed from the battle. But her father didn't do her any favors from being a southern in northern territory, her mother having him committed as being insane, and having his daughters named in southern fashion. But was it just hear-say when it comes to terms of character, or was she really not as sympathetic to the Union as one would expect a northern to be?
A number of items with historical significance was included in his presentation, such as Samuel Weaver's Book of Dead, full of copious notes with pocket belongings discovered with each soldier, and S.G. Elliot's map of grave markers. One of the questions Mark would get asked a lot was whether they recovered all the bodies. The simple answer to that is...No. There were so many bodies decorating the fields that while they did the best they could to assemble them, they have been more recent discoveries of bones being found as late as the 1990s. In the 1870s, the southern states were working together with Samuel's son, in locating their dead relatives and bringing them back home to be buried in designated cemeteries.
Other odds and ends points were brought up in the discussion like a possible treasure cave of civil war supplies on Round Top, a cannon that was dropped in a well we probably won't see again, and the missing gold that was sent to pay the union troops in 1863. Overall, we have a wonderful turnout for our last PROMM event of the year and we thank everyone who attended over the summer months. We will look forward to seeing you again at the next one!
Thanks to Sarah Ickes for the evening's photos and for the notes. #gettysburg #books #authorevents #mystery
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